Rays Hill Tunnel

The Rays Hill Tunnel was originally constructed in 1881 as a railroad tunnel. However, it was never used for that purpose. In 1938 the tunnel was updated and in 1940 it opened as part of the Pennsylvania Turnpike. This was the shortest of the seven tunnels originally on the Pennsylvania Turnpike, and only has ventilation housing at the western portal (the other tunnels all have ventilation at both portals).

Unfortunately, the tunnels all caused bottlenecks along the Turnpike due to the reduced speeds with opposing traffic in the same tubes. Therefore, a project was started to twin or bypass the tunnels to increase the efficiency. The project was started in 1962, with plans to twin four of the tunnels (Alleghany Mountain Tunnel, Blue Mountain Tunnel, and Kittatinny Mountain Tunnel and Tuscarora Tunnel), and bypass the remaining three tunnels (Laurel Hill Tunnel, Sideling Hill Tunnel and Rays Hill Tunnel). The final construction was completed in 1968, with the new Pennsylvania Turnpike Alignment opening on November 26, 1968. At this point, all of the bypassed tunnels were abandoned.

While the Pennsylvania Turnpike still owns the right-of-way, they gave control of the Rays Hill Tunnel, Sideling Hill Tunnel, and 13.5 miles of the roadway through them to the Southern Alleghenies Conservancy in 2001. They plan is to convert this to a bicycle trail, but there are safety concerns about how to build the trail. However, the roadway is not blocked off, and many people are already using the trail (currently called the Pike2Bike Trail).